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Got my LA visit next week, what to expect? How to get through this unscathed.

2 replies

Esmeestelle · 07/11/2011 19:14

I deregisted my ds last week. He is ASD and has been suffering though MS and then an ASD unit for the last three years. Finally after he came home three days in a row with injuries from being "restrained" I could take no more and have removed him. I have given up on the LA to be perfectly frank, I have made my feelings known and explained my ds to them over and over again and I believe he is now emotionally damaged by the time he has spent in school. I will NOT send him back again.

He has a real fear and anxiety now surrounding any kind of education at school he was simply unable to function and learned nothing eg this morning I did Reception level maths with him from the IXL site and he was clueless, he is age 8 and in Year 4. I have got to be able to do better than that!

As I say I deregistered him last week and am now getting a visit, the speed of which concerns me for a start as I had thought that it could take much longer than that.

What do I need to say to them and show them. To be quite honest my ds has learned more with me over the last week than he I believe he has in three years at school. We do things like watch an episode of Horrible Histories and then look up anything that interested him on the net. We also look it up in the encylopaedia too to get him used to referencing from books etc. This week I taught what a dictionary was and how to use it. We are watching Frozen Planet together as well and he is fascinated by it, we talk about it so I can see that he comprehends it and then we do more looking up about the various animals etc. We do basic maths on a couple of websites, I have basically started from the beginning, right back to Reception level maths to get him up to speed. He swims 5 x a week and socialises there, although not at all in a structured way, we go to the park at least four times a week and he makes friends there. Is all this going to be enough to start with?

I thought about doing a 6 week plan to begin with to show them and have diarised all I have done with him this week, is this enough? He does not write, at all, he can but hates it so at this time I don't make him he has enough anxiety and I am trying to reduce that. So I have no work to show them.

Sorry this is so long, can you tell me how you got through your visits? What to expect? What will they want to see? How can they help? If they can help?

Many thanks.

OP posts:
Esmeestelle · 07/11/2011 19:16

Oh and he is a free reader, has been since he was 6 so I often get him to read to me and then ask him questions to check his comprehension. Is this the kind of thing I can tell them? I am so scared of looking completely and utterly naive and clueless.

OP posts:
FionaJNicholson · 07/11/2011 20:42

Are you in England? Because any of the legal stuff I quote will be from England.

Firstly you don't have to accept a visit in your home at any point, let alone when you have just started home educating.

Secondly, if someone wants to call round so soon after you have started it could be education welfare, just to check that you really want to be home educating and aren't regretting taking him out or (sadly quite frequent) that you were pushed into it by the school. It's pretty unlikely to be anything about how much "education" you have done, if you see what I mean.

Thirdly you don't have to have a plan.

Fourthly you don't need to show any "work".

Fifthly, all you need to do at this stage is jot down a few ideas about what it is you want to achieve, which in fact you've already outlined in your post ie work on overcoming his anxiety (or on developing coping strategies), enjoying discovering new things together, following his interests, finding out the gaps in his learning and reinforcing the basics.

I'm stressing all this so you don't think "oh no I'm not ready to see someone yet, we haven't got enough to show them, so I'll put it off" because you don't have to be "ready" and you don't have to do it ever if you would prefer not.

It's worth getting back in touch with the person who contacted you and asking what is the purpose of the visit.

Home Ed Guidelines here edyourself.org/articles/guidelines.php

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